At a recent fair we met Carol Yoder, who has been a long-time farmstead chef, and she shared her recipe for homemade nut bars.

We just arrived back to our farm after a spectacular visit to the Seven Springs Resort in Pennsylvania and the Mother Earth News Fair (where BowTie Press was also signing folks up for subscriptions to Hobby Farms and Hobby Farm Home). More than 15,000 people from across the country poured into the mountain resort to learn more about renewable energy, backyard gardens and raising chickens, and we were among the line-up of presenters.

After our “Farmstead Chef” presentation and before our “Sustainable Living Simplified” talk (the organizers really kept us hopping), we had a delightful conversation with fair attendee, Carol Yoder. It turns out, she’s been a farmstead chef her whole life. Before our last talk, she shared with us a small bag filled with her Health Nut Bars. The sweet-salty crunch and energy-packed snack kept us going all afternoon.

Fortunately for us all, she was more than delighted to share the recipe for her Health Nut Bars, which we adapted and shared below to help get you through a sustainable-living or county fair—or a long day of chores on the farmstead.

“You can alter the dry ingredients as long as you maintain the proportions,” Yoder says. “I substitute different nuts to the mix. Just make sure you only have six cups total of the cereal-and-nut mixture or it won’t stick together.”

“I control the ingredients instead of having who knows what in what I’m eating,” she adds. “The texture is also better than in any store-bought brand I’ve tried.” We couldn’t agree more. And if you make your own sunflower or pumpkin seeds, raisins or honey, you’re really transforming this treat into something that offers a true taste of local.

John D. Ivanko is co-author of Homemade for Sale, Farmstead Chef, ECOpreneuring and Rural Renaissance. He lives on an organic farm and operates the award-winning Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast, completely powered by the wind and sun.FOLLOWMORE ARTICLES